So the assertion is that Russian intelligence services cannot thwart encryption, including the encryption that it standardized for civilian use?
If this were true, I would feel very comfortable speaking about politics in Russia, as in the United States all consumer-grade encryption is being broken by our intelligence services.
I'm not sure what you mean by "civilian use encryption". If it's SSL, then I don't see how they would have the means - so far as I know, it's still cryptographically secure, and unlike US, they can't just force certificate authorities to cooperate and allow them to do MITM.
There have been some attempts by the ISPs to enable MITM, but it's very crude - they basically block SSL, except for their own custom root certificate that they explicitly require you to install, and then they use that to MITM you. It's all very blatant, and I think there was only one ISP actually trying to do it.
Also, I'm not aware of any cases of dissenters caught because their encryption was broken. Most people who get persecuted for their views said all the things they did out in the open, either to make a stand, or because they were careless.
If this were true, I would feel very comfortable speaking about politics in Russia, as in the United States all consumer-grade encryption is being broken by our intelligence services.